Darren Proctor Memorial Avalanche Olympics

This past weekend a group of friends and family of Darren Proctor gathered in Whistler to commemorate his passing 10 years ago. Part 1 was the Avalanche Olympics on Tricouni Mountain Saturday morning. This consisted of timed beacon searches run in 3 man heats. The top 3 made it to the final where they each had to find 2 beacons. Winner take all - $500. The weather threatened for a while, but in the end the clouds parted and gave us some love. Thanks Proctor!

Akasha checks in. Stu photo.

Kevin, Mel & Darren getting busy at the grill with Cam.

Vanessa Stark digging for cash! Stu photo.


The finalists - Abby, Dave B & Helen. Stu photo.

Stu tabulating.

Fastest of the day - Abby! Stu photo.

After catching the end of the Grillers game (they won) everyone met down at Whistler Creek to spread Darren's remaining ashes. Then it was off to Creekbread for eats and awards.

C.S.M.

A drink for our brother Prox.

Creekbread Mob.

BJ and Age.

Chris Miron & Dave B.

Steve Sherlock of course.

Wes, Seb & Tosh in the house.

Stu & Abby.

It's hard to believe it has been 10 years since Proctor passed on. Great to see everyone. Thanks to Stu for spearheading the 1st annual Avalanche Olympics. The plan is to make it an annual event in December. Watch for it next season.

Surf & Snow

Scott Rowley just cruised through Pemberton on his way to Revelstoke from Vancouver Island. He's been bouncing back and forth between surf and snow all season, scoring wherever he goes.

We did a quick tour off the Duffey on a day that didn't hold much promise and found good snow in this little corner of the zone. I got to try out Jonaven's new Jones splitboard "The Solution" and can say it's definitely a nice ride. Here's a little clip of my first turns on Jones' new product.

Tantalus

Just spent 3 days in the Tantalus Range. We got a lift from Black Tusk Helicopters out of Squamish on a Thursday morning. The views from above the Rumbling Glacier were nothing short of spectacular. I could see from Mount Currie to Mount Baker. Jeremy Jones joined Jonaven to tag lines above the Squamish Valley for the "Deeper" project. The weather couldn't have been better for snow camping and touring. Sunny skies and not much wind. The east facing slopes we wanted to film demanded early morning starts so we could be done with them before the sun heated up too much. Skinning across a glacier in the dark with a headlamp was definitely a new experience for me. It was surreal to be so close to Highway 99 (full cell service) and be in the middle of some serious gnar at the same time. I've been driving past the Tantalus on Highway 99 for my entire life. To finally spend some time up there was very satisfying.

Home for 3 days.

Mt. Tantalus and the Rumbling Glacier.

Snow pits & test slopes on Day 1.

Jonaven and the Rumbling Glacier.

Jonaven climbing to his bivy spot around the corner. He spent the night on top of his line so he could ride it at sunrise.

Camp with Garibaldi in the distance.

Jones climbed right up this line in about 30 minutes. He then slayed it in about 1 minute.

Mikey Nixon was along for the excursion. Big smiles.

The clouds rolled in Saturday afternoon.

Ten minutes later we were in Squamish swatting mosquitoes.

Winter Returns to Pemberton

What a strange snow season we're having here in B.C. Most of February felt more like April. Bike trails were being ridden, the valley was green and it felt as though winter was finished. Then the temps dropped and low pressure systems in the gulf started spinning. March has brought a welcome return to winter (at least on the top half of the mountains).

Last weekend we stayed overnight in a cabin off the Duffey Lake Road. Dan Milner (over from France to take some photos) and I trekked into the shelter Friday night towing crazy carpets. Jonaven & his dogs (from here on known as Johnny 2 Dogs) and Dave B. met us there early Saturday morning and we were off to the fresh powder.

Full load. Thanks for the pic Dan.

Dave B's stack before...

...and after.

Lunchtime in the trees.

Dognap.

Touring up to...

the upper playground.

We spent two days shooting footage in the storm for "Deeper." Snow stability was less than bomber, but we were still able to get some decent shots on smaller terrain. All in all it was a great two days in the snow.

Olympics

The Olympics just wrapped up today with Canada winning the gold medal in Men's Hockey versus the U.S.A. What a way to finish! My brother was at the game through some good fortune (and witchcraft I'm pretty sure.) He's the luckiest guy on the planet I know on this day. He got to witness in person one of the most exciting hockey games of all time. I watched from Pemberton in a room full of old and new friends from both sides of the border (and a Swede.) After the game we visited another home full of new and old friends where we watched the closing ceremonies and shared a fantastic meal.

All in all it was a wonderful Sunday where I got to reflect on the Olympics I had been dreading. I had some pretty big reservations about the games coming to town over the last few years. A big inconvenience was how I perceived it for the most part. Then, when it finally hit two weeks ago and was on... it all worked. Obviously there were bugs to work out at first and things to streamline, but once the whole operation started to chug along it was hard to hate on it. I always thought I'd be out of town during the games, but found myself at home the last 2 weeks. I never went to any of the events, but spent some time in Whistler enjoying the whole atmosphere of the thing and catching up with visiting friends. It was a party. And a good one. The press seemed to focus on the negatives at the start of it all (and it was bit of a rocky ride). When the Canadians started climbing the podium to accept medals everyone got behind them, including me. I had lots of friends and family directly involved with the games. I haven't been able to get any of their reviews yet, but I'm pretty sure no one has any regrets. I'm just so glad we won that game!

Dirksen & Deeper

Josh Dirksen has been hanging with us in Pemberton. He made his way up here after the Mt. Baker Banked Slalom to do some touring and shooting with me for Deeper. We've been battling the clouds until the last few days. Finally some sunshine. Stoked to finally work with Dirksen.

Mt Slalok

We've been touring around the Joffre Lakes this week quite a bit shooting footage for Deeper. The skies finally cleared yesterday and we got a good look at a line we've been eyeballing for a while now - Mt. Slalok. Jonaven & Ryan Daly joined forces (as they've been known to do) to tour up around the Matier Glacier and then up the back of Slalok. Ryan was dealing with some bronchial issues that ended up cutting his climb short about halfway up. Bummer, because there was a ton of snow left to shred after Jonaven dropped the line. About 5 hours from the Upper Joffre Lake to the top and about 2 minutes back down to the lake. Windy all morning, but it eased up right when we needed it to. Check out Jonaven's pics here.

Campbell Icefield Chalet

I spent last week splitboarding in the Rocky Mountains just north of Golden at The Campbell Icefield Chalet. I was part of a group of 8 made up of Jonaven Moore and his family and friends. We flew in on a big Bell 212 on a saturday and quickly set out to explore the new (to us) terrain. The group that was there the week before us numbered 30. They said something about hoping it snowed for us because they had tracked everything out. There were a lot of tracks around, but none where we wanted to ride. Except for the up tracks everywhere - thank you! The weather during the week was mostly cloudy with a little bit of new snow almost every night. The snowpack was super stable throughout the week too. There were also enough pillows and steep tree runs to keep us busy in the low visibility. The last morning dawned with clear skies and let us up into the alpine for one run before it milked out. At the end of the week we were pretty blissed out. We did our own cooking, ate amazing meals with great people and got some great footage for the Deeper project.

Our home for 7 days.

A pillow face we named Happyland!

Happyland from above.

More pillow stacks...

Jonaven in a pretty cool place.

Kelly Schovanek, me & Jonaven.

A room with a view.

Thunder Mountain catching some rare morning light.

The group before us had built a network of igloos and tunnels.

As I was taking this picture with the couloir on the left in the background...

Jonaven was taking this one in the couloir.

This line revealed itself to us for about 20 minutes one afternoon. We never did get the light to get to it.

Happy shot.

Thanks Harry Patterson for putting this one together.